Realtor Group Urges Action Against Foreclosure Scams

You’re hanging onto your home with all of your energy, trying to keep up with payments despite having lost a significant chunk of your income due to a furlough. Weeks give way to months and you’re falling further behind, soon you expect you’ll receive notice that your lender has started legal action leading to a foreclosure.

A White Knight Suddenly Appears

Suddenly, what appears to be a white knight steps forward, offering to help you get through your predicament. He could come to you in many different forms, offering to buy your house from you and letting you live there as a renter, perhaps promising to sell the home back to you when your finances improve. Or, he’ll offer to you a new loan, one that he says will pay off the old loan making your payments more affordable. Of course, he tricked you into signing the deed to your home over to him!

Regardless just how the fraud is perpetuated, it is a huge problem that just won’t go away. To that end representatives from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is asking Congress to intervene, urging passage of a bill, H.R. 1231 (The National Rescue Fraud Act of 2009) to help strengthen laws to combat foreclosure scam.

Foreclosures Can Hurt Families, Impact Neighborhoods

“Foreclosures lead to families losing their homes and their savings, and can cause entire neighborhoods to lose home value,” said John W. Anderson, a broker-owner from Crystal, Minn., who spoke on NAR’s behalf before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. “A sound and dynamic real estate industry fosters families and communities, and sustains and stimulates the national economy.”

The house bill would create suitable minimum standards for disclosure and terms of service for individuals or firms offering their services as foreclosure consultants to distressed homeowners. Homeowners would be able to confirm that these so-called professionals actually do offer a legitimate service based on this criteria.

Defrauding Families One Household At A Time

“There has been a significant rise in the number of foreclosure rescue scammers making all kinds of claims to defraud already devastated families,” said Anderson. “We all have an interest and a stake in making this stop.”

Anderson believes that the housing market is on the road to recovery, but foreclosures and the resultant scams could impede that effort. By reforming the mortgage lending sector, he believes that consumers will be protected and that the housing recovery will be sustainable.

Adv. — Are you looking to refinanceyour home? Interest rates haven’t been this low in years! If you have very good or excellent credit, you could find a home loan with an interest rate of about 5% for a fixed rate, thirty-year mortgage. Visit SayLending.com for more information!

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: SayEducate.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. The commission earnings are used to defray our cost of operation.

About Author

From the administrative staff at SayEducate.com. We hope you enjoy this managing your money and finances BLOG-magazine. Please forward any suggestions or comments regarding the posting or other elements of our site.
Thank you.